Retargetting to framework v4.5 +

[EdHarvey]

Starting January 2016 Microsoft will no longer provide security updates, technical support or hotfixes for .NET 4, 4.5, and 4.5.1 frameworks, so it is likely that most installations will be swiftly installing version 4.5.2 (or later) if they have not already done so. Post version 4 frameworks are an 'in-place' update replacing the existing version rather than existing side-by-side.

I believe this is an opportune time for us to retarget ILSpy from 4 to a more recent version.

This would allow us to use the rather substantial enhancements to MEF that were introduced in 4.5.

[EdHarvey]

I am currently working on a major restructuring/upgrade of the Analyzer to

• Reduce dependencies between the Analyzer and ILSpy/Decompiler
• Make it easier to enhance/maintain the Analyzer in the future.
• Allow third-party use of Analyser functionality (for example, add-ins)
• Allow add-in extensions to the Analyzer.

The final two items will probably require functionality from "MEF2", introduced in .Net 4.5

[christophwille]

I for one have no problem going 4.5+ @siegfriedpammer @dgrunwald any objections from you?

[AraHaan]

tbh I perfer 4.6 just to be safe. Also have a idea on this? #713 it happens when a form I think has a lot of controls that it cannot handle it prob for some reason. It might need a look into. @EdHarvey @christophwille Sadly I need that form to not be 0 KB like the one I have or I will not be able to run the program if I get it's dependencies to compile.

[dgrunwald]

Every increase of the required .NET version will cause problems for some of our users who don't have the latest .NET version installed. Going to 4.5 also means giving up support for Windows XP. (which shouldn't be a problem in 2016...)

I don't have any objections going to .NET 4.5 since that does offer us major advantages (async/await, MEF2, other portable libraries), but I wouldn't increase the .NET requirement further without a compelling reason.

[EdHarvey]

I don't have any objections going to .NET 4.5 since that does offer us major advantages (async/await, MEF2, other portable libraries), but I wouldn't increase the .NET requirement further without a compelling reason.

I agree, but 4.5.2 seems to be the best candidate to me, as it's the earliest version still supported by Microsoft...

I would, however, be very amenable to allowing C# 6 features into the codebase.
It's been nearly a year since it was released, and I really want to be able to use the 'null conditional' operator (it's become second nature now, and I hate having to shift mental gears to go back and rewrite code to be C#5 compliant 😒)

[siegfriedpammer]

I am already using C# 6 features in the code base. The language version is not connected to the framework version used. Of course, in order to compile ILSpy you have to install the framework version with the C# 6 compiler included.

[AraHaan]

Do you not forget that users can install 4.5+ on windows XP too I did so before with SP3 Home when I had it on my other laptop (actually I still have it but the display is screwed on it).

[christophwille]

XP definitely should not be part of our considerations any more. It is dead security-wise.

[AraHaan]

Yep security wise yes but sadly the last OS that uses a bitmap format theme the newer ones use PNG on their resources and no ini config.

[christophwille]

Related #831

[siegfriedpammer]

Now targeting v4.6.1 (on newdecompiler branch).